Soul Train Music Awards 2011 Preview + Soulhead Predictions

November 27, 2011

With Chris Brown and Beyonce leading the nominees, the 2011 Soul Train Awards, which took place on Thursday, November 17th at the Fox Theater in Atlanta, Georgia, will air tonight, November 27, on both Centric and BET at 9PM EST.

Confirmed performers for the show include multi-Grammy Award winning singer Natalie Cole, Jill Scott, Mindless Behavior, Robin Thicke, BeBe Winans and Joe, with The Original 7Ven, formerly known as The Time, opening the show. Questlove, of The Roots, will also perform a rendition of the “Soul Train” opening song.

While we are well aware that many of our picks will not likely win, we present those those that we feel are most deserving here for your review and debate.

SOULHEAD PICKS

Best New Artist

Bruno Mars
Marsha AmbrosiusMiguel (Soulhead Pick)
Frank Ocean

Commentary: While we were quite impressed by Frank Ocean this year, we feel Miguel really made us sit up and listen. “All I Want is You” is one of the better songs this year for sure. While we think Bruno Mars will likely win this award, we are pulling for Miguel.

Best Male R&B/Soul Artist

Trey Songz

Chris Brown
R. Kelly
MiguelCee Lo Green (Soulhead Pick)
Eric Benet

Commentary: We are just too proud of Cee Lo. From Goodie MOB to Gnarls Barkley, this brother has really been on a roll for years. Again, he likely won’t win but he deserves to. Unfortunately, Chris Brown will likely take the award, which we do not feel will be deserved. Not that Chris is not talented, but in this group, he’s not our fave.

Commentary: We are strooong supporters of Ledisi as one of our country’s best singers ever. As such, we cannot go against her in this important category. We love most of these artists and would love to see any of these incredibly gifted artists win, but Ledisi should win, with Raphael Saadiq a very close second.

Commentary: We’d actually like to see Trey Songz win this award since he has been grinding for so many years and this past year produced some quality material. However, I think the best album of this group would be Jay Z and Kanye’s effort followed by Adele.

Commentary: Almost too close to call, but since this is a hip hop category and not a pop category, we will pick Otis over Moment for Life, which we feel is a more powerful song but not as hip hop as Otis.

Commentary: We love all of these artists but felt that Jennifer Hudson had the best year. The sentimental fave here would be Kelly Rowland but we don’t actually believe she will get the nod over Beyonce. As such, they may cancel each other out, leaving the way for J-Hud to scoop up this one.